The OAU lecturer, Prof. Richard Akindele that was accused of asking for se.x in order to upgrade marks from a female student cannot be found.
PUNCH Metro has visited his office on Thursday and from reports, Professor Akindele was nowhere to be found.
One of the University lecturers at his department said the man had been on the run since his conversation with the female student of the University went viral on the internet.
The lecturer, who want to remain anonymous, added that the professor can’t be found at his apartment, adding that some of his church members had been going to his residence to sympathize with his wife.
He said:
“The prof is not in the office. He has not been coming since his alleged conversation with a female student went viral. I don’t know where he is, but he had finished his sabbatical and has come back to the campus before this scandal broke out.”
Earlier on while reacting to the scandal involving her Spouse, Professor Richard Akindele’s wife has denied the allegations against her husband and she said the devil is out to spoil her husband’s reputation.
At the university, there were few Obafemi Awolowo University lecturers and workers that all stood in clusters in front of the Faculty of Administration where the department is situated.
Most of them have refused to speak concerning the matter.
Abiodun Olanrewaju, The OAU Public Relations Officer, stated he could not tell if Prof. Akindele had gone into hiding, adding that the committee investigating the matter had started sitting. He noted that the school was still in search for the student. Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, Punch reports, said,
“For now, the prof. has finished his sabbatical, but he has some accumulated leave. It is only his head of department that can say categorically if he has been coming to the office or not.
“I don’t know if he has gone into hiding because he is not a criminal. We are still investigating the allegations levelled against him. He has not been convicted and he is not before any court of competent jurisdiction.
“We have set machinery in motion to identify the characters in the audio tape. Obafemi Awolowo University is the best ICT university in Nigeria and we have the apparatus to determine the vanity or otherwise of the audio tape.
“If any student comes out to tell the university that certain things happened to them, the university will investigate it. As a university, we don’t rely on speculations, neither do we dwell on rumours.
But if we receive a formal complaint from anybody, either student or worker, that has to do with harassment – whether se.xual, political, social or religious – we will take it up. But there must be a complaint before we know what to do.
“The girl that recorded the audio, we are still working on her identity and when she comes forward, we will know. But it won’t be in the interest of members of the panel to pre-empt that. However, they have started sitting on the issue.”
When asked if the findings of the committee will be made public, Punch reports the Public Relations Officer said the university would make the findings of the committee public because it has nothing to hide.
